This has been driving me crazy a little. Is it Camera Dot? Camera Interpunct? Camera Bullet? Camera Middle Dot? Camera Diacritical Character?
But I think, maybe, just "Facebook Camera" is the name they'd choose.
Glad they changed the name, though...am assuming Apple made them change it (which makes "interpunct" kind of hilarious); was totally surprised that it made it through to begin with--an identical icon with a different background color & the same name, many users wouldn't know the difference...and "Camera Interpunct? Dot?" is way better than "Camera - I don't know what happened, but my camera is broken and it always goes to Facebook!"
Name spacing isn't that hard. Facebook should be able to call it Camera - and to differentiate it from another Camera app, call it Facebook Camera. Trying to trademark dictionary words is just silly.
Mark Rein·Hagen, the designer of Storyteller, was once asked, "How do
you pronounce the dot in your name?" He replied, "It's unpronounceable,
and symbolises how meaningless are the labels that we attach to
ourselves." One can tell immediately from this comment that Mark
Rein·Hagen is a Quiche Eater. Real Men don't need the abstract concepts
introduced by Quiche-Eating games--like characterisation, immersiveness
or realism--to get their jobs done. They are perfectly happy with a
sword, a spellbook, and a beer.
It certainly doesn't make any sense from a consistency standpoint, but then again, Facebook is one of the least consistent web apps I've used. Everything from their developer SDKs/APIs to their end user mobile apps are ever-changing and often times filled with bugs or "What were they thinking?!" behavior.
In terms of splitting functionality into separate iOS apps, I don't trust they'll be able to keep the UX consistent, either.
I bet this is because of the App Store SEO. The way search works is that if a user types in "Camera" in the search field, the first apps that come up on top are the ones that are called simply "Camera[+non-letter-chars]".
Even if Facebook's Camera had a gazillion downloads, it would end up below apps called "Camera+++", just because of the name.
By changing the name from "Facebook Camera" to "Camera•" the company is guaranteed to position on top of the search for the phrase "Camera", and get even more downloads. And once they changed it to "Camera•" in the App Store it only made sense to change the name to "Camera•" on the device, to maintain consistency in the naming.
(disclaimer: I'm the founder of AppCod.es, and we've analysed the details of Apple's search engine in detail :) )
Each character has a numerical value that is fairly standardized as ASCII or Unicode. Typically + maps to 43, a to 97 (b to 98, c to 99, ...) and • to 149 and will be sorted in that order.
That's a bit of a simplification; often times more sophisticated orderings are used, especially with consideration to internationalization.
For more information, the appropriate search term is "collation" -- ordering words and terms according to the rules of an alphabet, case sensitivity, accent sensitivity...
As for the sorting in the App Store, Apple strips all the non-letter characters, and orders apps which match the search query according to their download numbers.
So, if "Camera+" had 100k downloads, and "Camera!" had 10k downloads, "Camera+" will be above "Camera!" in the App Store search.
There are some more rules explained in this slideshare: http://slideshare.net/kolinko/app-store-seo-tutorial
I don't think your SEO theory is right, the screenshot shows it being sorted after Camera+, and the actual ascii value of • is in the extended (>127) portion so its likely to be sorted after almost any other permissible character.
The screenshot shows iPhone app search (apps in the phone, sorted alphabetically), not the app store search.
Having said that, I've just tested my theory, and it seems that they didn't change their App Store name: it's still "Facebook Camera", and it still shows below apps like "Camera-" which has just a handful of downloads.
Company name I think is weighted higher than title of the app. I remember for a while the top game in the free section was made by a company called "Top Free Angry Zombies" or something like that. That's when you know App Store discovery is broken.
I'm tired of nicheification and SEO. The internet is turning into a playground for investment bankers seeking to cut us all into marketable stereotypes. Corporations, jostling for control over basic language and its use. The fact that this "App" is going to be put into a "marketplace" that is guided by corporate concern bothers me too.
That's even worse! How are you meant to say that without sounding fake-excited? There's a radio station around here called "PULSE!" that I have the same issue with. It's not even an exciting radio station.
My guess is that Apple asked Facebook not to use the same name as the built in camera, and Facebook complied to avoid damaging their renewed relationship.
If you're going to allow dozens of Camera* names, why the heck don't you just allow them all to be called Camera and let people sort them out by publisher? It's not like you should be using the name as the GUID anyway, or like Camera is a reasonably defensible trademark for a camera program.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 96.2 ms ] threadBut I think, maybe, just "Facebook Camera" is the name they'd choose.
Glad they changed the name, though...am assuming Apple made them change it (which makes "interpunct" kind of hilarious); was totally surprised that it made it through to begin with--an identical icon with a different background color & the same name, many users wouldn't know the difference...and "Camera Interpunct? Dot?" is way better than "Camera - I don't know what happened, but my camera is broken and it always goes to Facebook!"
In terms of splitting functionality into separate iOS apps, I don't trust they'll be able to keep the UX consistent, either.
By changing the name from "Facebook Camera" to "Camera•" the company is guaranteed to position on top of the search for the phrase "Camera", and get even more downloads. And once they changed it to "Camera•" in the App Store it only made sense to change the name to "Camera•" on the device, to maintain consistency in the naming.
(disclaimer: I'm the founder of AppCod.es, and we've analysed the details of Apple's search engine in detail :) )
That's a bit of a simplification; often times more sophisticated orderings are used, especially with consideration to internationalization.
As for the sorting in the App Store, Apple strips all the non-letter characters, and orders apps which match the search query according to their download numbers.
So, if "Camera+" had 100k downloads, and "Camera!" had 10k downloads, "Camera+" will be above "Camera!" in the App Store search. There are some more rules explained in this slideshare: http://slideshare.net/kolinko/app-store-seo-tutorial
Having said that, I've just tested my theory, and it seems that they didn't change their App Store name: it's still "Facebook Camera", and it still shows below apps like "Camera-" which has just a handful of downloads.
?:)
As for the company name, I believe you're talking about "Angry Zombie Kids Apps & Doodle Zombiez Birds Jump Gun Games" (true name).
Fortunately you can change company name only once, so this is limited. But still..
note: sarcasm applied.
Camera+, Camera ∞, Socialcam Video Camera, Camera!!, Camera, Camera ®, "Camera,", Camera.., CamWow: Free photo ..., Camera-, Instagram, CamWow Retro, 8mm Vintage Camera, Facebook Camera, ...
Notice how far down Facebook Camera is currently on this list.
Edit: I realize that the screenshot on the website shows the search order among installed apps, but I think this may be relevant, too.
[1] http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/08/new-myspace-logo/
My guess is that Apple has asked them to change it as 'Camera' is what they call their camera app.